Vote buying
The campaign period has been mired by consistent reports of vote buying and electoral bribery, with a number of individuals said to be aligned with opposition groups — Strong Armenia in particular — being detained in the lead up to the vote.
On Saturday, the Investigative Committee reported that over 40 people had been arrested ‘on suspicion of vote-buying amid an ongoing investigation into a large-scale scheme allegedly involving the Strong Armenia bloc’. Those detained in the latest case, which is still ongoing, had allegedly distributed bribes ranging from ֏100,000 ($270) to ֏500,000 ($1,350) to more than 100 voters in the western city of Artashat in exchange for a vote in support of the Strong Armenia bloc.
Armenian election commission rejects appeal to deregister main opposition group
Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia alliance was the main challenger to the ruling Civil Contract party.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
